by Alexa Davis
I could see Libby through the window, curled up on the couch by the big fireplace outside, staring into the cold brick alcove and hugging her knees to her chest, like she did when she was nervous or thinking.
“Hey, Patty, favorite almost-aunt of mine, can I ask a favor?” I waited for a response, and glanced over at her. She was watching me expectantly, and I laughed. “Sorry. I was wondering if you could put Libby in the northwest guest room tonight? It has the best soaking tub, according to Rachel, and I want to give Libby a relaxing evening.”
“Uh huh, I hear you, lover-boy. I’ll get in her moved in and make sure there’s plenty of bubble bath.” I kissed her soft, wrinkled cheek.
“That is why you’re my favorite. Need any help while I’m in here?” She clucked her tongue at me like a mother hen.
“Shouldn’t you be out, wooing your girl into a bubble bath?” I shook my head and started putting the cooled rolls in baskets to set out on the table.
“I’m not going to seduce her, Patty. I’m going to give her a break and let her do what she wants, for once.” Patty made a rude noise and I scoffed at her. “Geez Louise, Patty, what kind of selfish jerk do you take me for?”
“Selfish, no. Blind? Definitely. Stupid? Well, the jury’s still out on that one.” She stacked the baskets on the wheeled cart we used to get the food to the table, and waved me out the door with her apron.
I set the baskets at intervals on the table, so none of the ranch hands was farther than arms’ reach from the fresh baked bread, and wandered over to the couch where Rachel sat. She shifted to one side without looking up, but I eased myself onto the arm instead, and watched the empty fireplace with her. After a couple of minutes of silence, she patted the cushion next to her.
“C’mon, you look uncomfortable. Sit down, before people start thinking I bite.” I slid down into the couch.
“What are you thinking about, exactly?” She shrugged and pulled her knees up under her chin again. “Are you hungry, at least?”
“I’d say ‘no,’ but I’ve been sitting here inhaling the delicious torture for almost half an hour and I think my stomach is about to start gnawing on my spine.”
I put my arm around her and let it rest on the back of the sofa, and we sat in silence as the ranch hands trickled in from the fields and filled their plates, laughing and teasing each other while they overloaded their plates and waited for my brother and father to sit down so they could start eating.
Libby was quiet through the meal, as silent and shy as I’d ever seen her around other people. The men glanced at her from time to time, and I couldn’t blame them. But as much as they loved pretty women visiting, even they seemed to recognize her need for space. She was interesting to my family too, but other than a few glances in her direction, they didn’t ask her too many questions, or pry into our relationship. It was the most reserved I’d ever seen the men around a girl one of us had brought home.
Dad called out the few evening chores and everyone drifted off one direction or another, and Libby and I helped Jake clear up from dinner, leaving the two of them to finish alone when I saw Patty shooting him looks and then glancing at us.
“Did you already know?” Libby giggled when we got out of earshot.
“Well, no, but they’re the only two single adults their ages on the ranch, and I mean… You know what, I really just don’t want to think about it.” I coughed and shuddered.
“Oh, now, there are worse things,” she chided me. I was happy for Jake. I wouldn’t have expected Patty to be with a ranch hand, but in a way, it made sense. Lago Colina was everything to them both, and they were our oldest and most loyal help.
“Fine. Enough about them, I still want to be able to sleep tonight.” She giggled again and tugged my arm toward the garden.
“I got to see the garden this morning, but Danny said it was especially beautiful at night.”
I nodded and took her down the path that led to the small creek that ran through the property. In a clearing before the garden gave way to forest, my grandfather had built a bridge wide enough for a carriage to cross, and built a stone bench at the top of the shallow arch.
We sat while she watched the sunset. She had my full attention, even though the view was as beautiful as I remembered it to be from this spot. I saw the pinks and golds of the evening sky play across her skin, as I remembered how it felt to drag my fingertips over the soft, silken curves of her body. I looked away to regain a bit of my self-control, and Libby pressed her hand into my thigh, digging her fingers in as the light expanded and appeared to create natural fireworks in the sky.
I slid closer to her, closing the last inch of space between us so that my thigh was pressed the length of hers, from hip to knee. I didn’t press any further, but got some satisfaction from the fact that she didn’t pull away. We continued to sit there together, until the sun disappeared over the horizon and the stars started winking to life. She sat out under the growing blanket of darkness until the mountain chill set in, and I felt her shivering by my side.
“Hey, let’s get you inside. I had Patty move you, so you’ll have almost the same view from your balcony tonight.” She nodded in agreement, and I put an arm around her to warm her while we trekked back through the garden and up to the house. I walked her to her room and started a bath while she changed out of her clothes and into a robe. It was huge on her, and she looked even thinner engulfed by the thick fabric of the robe, which only hung to her knees, but could almost wrap around her twice.
“I take it these were purchased for you and your brothers.” I hid my laugh with a cough and tested the temperature of the quickly filling bath. Glancing around, I saw a bottle of champagne on ice and two glasses, and rolled my eyes at Patty’s less-than-subtle attempts to bring us together.
“Two glasses, huh?” I groaned aloud as Libby noticed the bottle and glasses.
“She said she’d help me create a relaxing evening for you, but I think she inferred the wrong thing despite my protests.”
“It’s okay, just turn around when I get undressed, and we can talk. Although, this tub is definitely big enough two.”
“Yes, I’m sorry about that. I did tell her to move you in here; I guess she thought I was kidding about the ‘she’s going to be alone’ part.” Libby nodded, and dropped the robe from her shoulders as she got closer to the bath and reached in to test the water. Her skin was supple and smooth, and I reached out to touch it without thinking.
In response, Libby undid the thick cloth belt and opened the robe past her belly button, putting the soft triangle of curls I knew lay just below the V of the opening, just out of sight. I stared up into her eyes and slid my hand between the folds of the robe, and through those curls to the damp heat of her as she parted her legs to make it easier. I ran my fingers over her and between the soft inner folds until I felt her legs shake. I helped her to sit on the edge of the big tub, and pushed the robe out of the way so I could finally taste her.
Her breathing changed, and she trembled around my fingers and tongue, as I delved into her as deeply as I could at the awkward angle I’d pulled her down to, in my eagerness to get my mouth all over her. I pulled back and wrenched the robe off her, so she was sitting on the soft fabric, but there was nothing between us to stop me from spreading her legs wide and pleasing her the way I’d been wanting to for so long.
I took my time with her, even knowing that the tile would start to bruise her tender backside the same way it was making my knees ache. I reached up and turned off the faucet, and drove my face into the apex at the top of her thighs, using my tongue and lips as though they were my fingers, plying her open and sinking into her while little moans of pleasure escaped her.
I slid a finger inside and used it with my tongue, to turn those little moans into desperate cries for relief, and as I sucked the hard little nub nestled in her curls, her hands balled up in my hair and she cried my name, over and over, while she soaked my fingers and chin with her orgasm. She panted and shivered from the co
ld air of the bathroom, her legs still shaky and weak. I picked her up and stepped into the bath with her in my arms.
“Tucker, your clothes!” she squealed, giggling as I sat in the water with her in my lap. She undid my shirt and peeled the wet fabric down my arms, tossing it out of the tub and onto the tile floor. “How am I going to get your pants off now?” She complained.
“Believe me. That is never going to be a problem for you.” I undid the jeans and shoved the heavy, wet denim down my thighs, gasping when she reached for me and gripped me tight in her little hand. “Let me get them off first, or this is going to get really awkward, love.” She bit her lip and crossed her arms.
“Better hurry, Tucker, I’m not sure how long I can hold off.” I chuckled and managed to free one foot, then the other. She slid up on me, slick and hot, before I could get the jeans out of the bath, and they hung over the edge while she reared up and speared herself on me. She was tight, and as soon as I was sheathed inside her, I struggled to remain in control.
She clung to the sides of the big copper tub, and her breasts were so tempting and close, I had no choice but to press my mouth to her and suck her into my mouth, using my tongue and teeth to elicit delicious moans from her, as she shuddered and clenched harder around me. I held her ass in my hands and pulled her down harder with each thrust, until she could barely pull off before I was slamming her back down onto me, pushing the water away from us in waves that spilled over the side of the tub into growing puddles on the floor.
I felt my release growing closer until she was riding me in a fine, sharp edge of pleasure that sliced through me like a knife. I shuddered and spasmed inside her, the orgasm tearing a roar from my throat as I emptied inside her. She sank into me, and I held her soft, wet skin against me while she squeezed tight around me, keeping me clutched inside her as the water cradled us. We’d lost so much water to the sponge effect of my clothes, that I turned it back on, warming us and letting us enjoy each other for that much longer before we had to part.
Finally, when the water had gone cold and our fingers were so pruned I was afraid they’d never go back to normal, we got out of the tub and I wrapped her in a bath sheet that covered her from her shoulders to her knees. I dumped the water from the mostly melted bucket of ice, and replaced the champagne before trailing her out of the bathroom and back into her guest suite. I poured and handed her a glass, and she climbed up on the bed, still wrapped-up and damp.
I watched her sip her champagne, curled up on the bed and sneaking peeks at me when she thought I wasn’t paying attention. I took the bottle to her and topped her off, then claimed her glass so she could get free of the oversized towel and get under the covers, where it was warmer. I handed her back the full glass and she giggled and snuggled in.
“I am in the perfect position for you to dance for me or something,” she suggested, wiggling her eyebrows.
“I don’t know, that sounds like something I’d only do for the woman who claims me.” She rolled her eyes and I laughed, shaking my naked ass in the middle of the room. “No, really. I can’t show all my moves to just anyone, it might be too much to handle, and you know how susceptible to my moves you are.”
“Well, obviously,” she countered, her hands spread out over the blanket like an offering. She patted the bed beside her, and set her now nearly empty glass on the table next to her. I sat on the edge of the bed and kissed her temple.
“I should go to my room now, if I can get that far without being seen.”
“Why go at all?” She slid her hand up my thigh and a groan escaped me. “You can stay. We’re in a good place and I want to have you within reach for my second wind.”
“Yeah, that sounds like the best idea ever. But I’m going to sleep alone tonight. I love touching you, being close to you. I wish I could slip you under my clothes and wear you wrapped around me all day and all night.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I am. I want to move fast, and this is how I can slow it down a moment and make sure you have your space.”
“But I’m not asking for it now.”
“Take it as a peace offering. I want you to know that you have your own space, even here on my family’s ranch. Once we are on neutral ground—or hell, on your ground—then I will stay and sleep in the morning after and make you stay in bed again all day. I promise.” Libby nodded and sighed.
“I get it. This is what I asked for, and I appreciate the space.” She sighed and grimaced at me. “But there are parts of me that are very irritated with me right now.” I kissed her soft, swollen lips and ran my fingers through the damp ends of her hair, where it had dragged through the bubbles and over my wet skin.
“You are an amazing woman, Libby. Have a good night.” She let me pull the blanket up over her higher, and snuggled in like she was going to pass out.
“Goodnight, love.” She murmured as she closed her eyes. I snuck out of the room and made it my old bedroom before anyone got wise to my nude presence in the hall. I slid under the covers of my bed, wishing I had stayed in Libby’s room, but too proud to admit that I might have been wrong. As soon as I lay down, I knew it was going to be a long, hard night, and I settled in for the hours of tossing and turning that I knew were to come.
16. Libby
The double doors that led to the courtroom were closed, and I’d already seen Andrew’s widow and his mother go in there as I was walking down the corridor, the former in a tight mini-skirt and the latter in furs, despite the Texas heat. I felt almost frumpy by comparison, wearing no jewelry but my wedding band. My hair was pulled back and my makeup was nonexistent. If I hadn’t lived in my town for so long, I wouldn’t have understood the value of understated money. To the ‘haves’ inside that room, who could very well decide the fate of my daughter, and me, the subtlety of real wealth was of the utmost importance.
Hannah Lancaster had done a very good job of making me look like old money that had lost everything. I’d told Tucker about the trust, but it was like it had never existed. I couldn’t believe how happy it made him that it wasn’t there, but he promised that he would figure it out. I stood outside the doors and willed myself to move my feet. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and it was Tucker, probably wondering if I was stuck in traffic.
With a sigh that sounded over dramatic, even in my head, I picked up my leaden feet and with a shaky smile to the bailiff who opened the door for me, I faced my enemy, a woman I had never met, who had lost the husband she took from me not three months later.
I controlled my breathing and measured my pace as I walked down the row between the two seating sections. Tucker was waiting at the front with a woman I had met the day before, but couldn’t remember her name with my nerves jangling all over the place the way they were.
Tucker helped me into my seat and poured me a glass of water, then opened his notes in front of me, so that I could see them, as well as the lady lawyer to my right. Carl, my ex-husband’s least favorite coworker, proceeded to weave a tale of my incompetence as a wife, even going as far as to imply I had something to do with his cancer diagnosis going poorly. The lady lawyer held my hand under the table, and I was grateful that she was there, and that she didn’t seem to care that my palm was sweaty and my leg was shaking under our clasped hands.
When Tucker stood, he painted an absolutely opposing portrait of me. The image he created was one built from years of acquaintance, of time spent with me and Andrew and little Olivia. He explained to the court that Andrew had lost his mind with grief and anguish when he’d gotten his cancer diagnosis, and that was what led to him abandoning us, not that I had abandoned him in his time of need.
He called another lawyer to the stand, as though we were in a TV movie trial show, instead of a civil hearing about a will. Carl cross-examined and Tucker called up more people, until I was dizzy from the effort of trying to keep up with the arguments and the objections and testimonies. Nothing Tucker had explained and practiced with me could compare to the chess
match that I was witnessing, as he and Carl moved people like pieces across the board, each one trying to knock out a queen.
I glanced over at the table where she sat, but only once. Her face was a mask of the same dull confusion that I felt, pain and loss and the shame of having your life broken down by strangers into “what-ifs” that dismantled your belief in everything you knew.
There was no hate when I looked at her, just interminable fear that I was every negative thing I was accused of, and that the very young woman across the courtroom from me had been everything my husband had ever wanted, only to lose him before she could make him into the good man he always wanted people to think he was.
Nauseated from the stress, and nursing a migraine, I heard the judge call for a recess until the following Monday, when Tucker and Carl would give their summations and we would hear her verdict on the validity of the will, and whether exceptions would be made in property, like the photos I wanted so badly, or if I would lose everything and be laughed out of court. I wasn’t nearly as optimistic about the prospect as Tucker and his team were, and all I could think about was taking medicine for my head and crawling into a deep, black hole that I could then pull in after me.
Tucker hadn’t touched me since he came to me at the ranch, and I craved his hands on my body. But instead, he had pulled away and become hyper-focused on the will and looking for any evidence that Olivia’s trust had ever existed. I gave him every scrap of financial paperwork I had, but nothing I had been able to take with me said anything that would help secure Olivia’s future.
It was a frustrating grind, but I still marveled at Tucker’s tenacity. He spent more time with me than he ever had when his aim had been romantic, and Olivia waited by the door every day to see if he would come and bring Kennedy with him. He would be immersed in work, and if Olivia crooked a dimpled little finger, he would put everything aside and play with her, sitting on the floor and sipping air from a teacup, or letting her climb all over him like he was a mountain to conquer.